him to visit the Hyde family. Here young Hardy met

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1 The Hardy Family MARION D. AND RUTH V. WESTON Thomas Hardy, brother of John Hardy of Boston, came to America from England with Governor Winthrop in He was one of the twelve founding the town of Ipswich, Mass. He built the first frame house there in Later he moved to Rowley and purchased one thousand acres of land along the Merrimac river, comprising for the most part what is now known as Groveland, but which, at the time Thomas Hardy made his purchase, belonged to the Rowley settlement, formerly known as the Rogers Plantation. He settled on this large tract of land about 1662, and the annual meeting of the Hardy Family Association, August 21, 1937, commemorated the two hundred seventy-fifth anniversary of this event. The Second Congregational Church of Groveland was host to the Hardy Family Association and brought members of the Hardy Family from all parts of the United States and Canada. In June, 1726, Daniel Hardy, a grandson of Thomas, called the first meeting of the second or east parish, which was set apart from the Bradford parish, of which Thomas Hardy and his wife were charter members, for the purpose of making plans for building a meeting house; the result was that in 1727 the new parish, now the Groveland Second Congregational church, was organized. Of the first one hundred one members, thirty-three were members of the Hardy Family. The year 1937 marked the two hundred tenth anniversary of the founding of this church. It is said that more of the Hardy name claim descent from Thomas Hardy of Groveland than from any other early settler of that name. A number of descendants still live at Groveland and at nearby Georgetown. Our grandmother, Caroline Matilda Hardy, married Flint Weston and lived in Georgetown, Massachusetts, but her parents, four brothers, and a sister, more than a hundred years ago, left their home on King Street, Georgetown, to found new homes on the banks of the Ohio river, settling in Kentucky and southern Indiana. During July of 1937, a motor trip of more than 3,000 miles included a visit to the Great Lakes Exposition at Cleveland, attendance at the annual convention of the National Education Association at Detroit, and the devotion of some

2 238 Indiana.Magazine of Histor3 time to genealogical research in Indiana and Kentucky. In 1817, Nathaniel Hardy, oldest of the four brothers and the pioneer emigrant of the family, took the journey alone on horseback, carrying with him his beloved bass viol. Residing for a few years in Indiana, he later made Louisville, Kentucky, his permanent home. There he became a very prosperous merchant. Descendants of this great uncle were visited in Louisville and Anchorage, Kentucky, by the writers. Descendants of another great uncle, Bartlett Hardy, were traced to Indianapolis. Near Salem, Indiana, in a family burial plot on the Hardy farm four miles west of town, was found the site of the graves of our great grandparents, Joseph and Lucretia Hardy; perhaps others of the family were buried there, too, but only one inscription could be read- Ruth B. Sawyer-Wife of Dr. Niles Hardy-Died Oct. 22, Deeds for the Hardy farm were found at the Court House in Salem, Indiana, showing that this land was sold in 1854 to Thomas and Alfred Trueblood. In the Clerk s office of Washington County in Book A, page 559, is the will of Joseph Hardy, dated July 1, 1842, and probated July 14, Nathaniel Hardy was born on May 24, 1795, at Bradford, and was the first of the Hardy family to come West as has been stated. He met Samuel Peck from Rehoboth, Massachusetts, and they became good friends. Samuel Peck was engaded to Melinda Hyde, who was born Nov. 4,1798, at Lisbon, Connecticut, but was now living in Clark County, Indiana, whence Samuel Peck invited Nathaniel Hardy to accompany him to visit the Hyde family. Here young Hardy met the youngest daughter, Mary Hyde, a very beautiful girl. They were married on May 13, The Hyde Genealogy states that Nathaniel Hardy was of Charleston, Indiana (Clark Co.), at this time. They went to live in a log cabin on the Ohio river, near Charleston, where Nathaniel sold supplies to river steamers. Here their daughter, Caroline Matilda Hardy, was born on March 22, A descendant of this daughter sent to us through the kindness of Miss Harriet Reid of Salem, Indiana (a descendant of Samuel Peck and Melinda Hyde), a picture of this cabin with the following information: I am sending you a picture of the old log house, on the Ohio river at Charleston Landing. The house was swept away by the flood of It was built without nails, of huge timbers, and Santa Claus could have gone down

3 The Hardy Family 239 the chimney with ease. A picture was also sent of the house in Louisville, Kentucky, built about 1840 (perhaps earlier) by Kzthaniel Hardy, then a successful merchant of Louisville. He died there on May 4, 1848, having married as his second wife-charlotte Howard of Louisville in His daughter Caroline Matilda, was married on April 3, 1844, to A. D. Miles of Louisville. They had two daughters, Mary Howard, born on Jan. 20, 1846, and Sarah Lilly, born on Sept. 14, Melinda Hyde, older sister of Mary Hyde Hardy, married Samuel Peck on April 2, 1820, at Providence (now Borden), Indiana. They settled at Salem, Indiana, about He was a captain of the local militia and ProSate Judge for several years. Another of the Hyde sisters, Rhoda Hyde, married Samuel Day of Salem on Dec. 25, In the spring of 1823, Mary Hyde Hardy and her infant daughter went to visit her family who lived in Salem, and there she died on May 3, Her grave is in Crown Hill Cemetery, with the following inscription on the tombstone : Mary C. Hardy-Wife of Nathaniel Hardy-Departed this life, May 3, The night of Mrs. Hardy s death, her husband, Nathaniel Hardy, according to his own report, dreamed that she was dead and looked at his watch. In the morning a man came on horseback to report her death, which occurred at the exact time of the dream. The young daughter, Caroline Matilda Hardy, is said to have lived with her grandmother and aunts in Salem until the time of her father s second marriage in These early contacts with Salem explain why Nathaniel Hardy chose Washington County, Indiana, as the town in which to purchase land and build a home for his parents and his invalid brother and family. Nathaniel Hardy went in 1838 to accompmy them to this new home.* The returning party included his parents, Joseph and Lucretia Hardy : his brother, Bailey ; his wife Ursula ; and five children, among them his own son, Nathaniel, who later became a physician in Salem. With them also came his sister Mehitable and her hus- The figures of the year are not clear, but the record from the Hyde Genealony now in possession of Mrs. Horace Campbell of Frankfort, Indiana, states Mary Clark Hyde. born Sentember 3, 1800, at Lisbon, Connecticut. died May 3rd The writers are fortunate to have two letters written to his only sister, our grandmother, Caroline Matilda Weaton, who was left with her family in Massachusetts.

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5 The Hardy Family 241 in Salem, Ind. She died Oct. 22, married (3) Maria Bliss Dickson, 1856, in Salem, Ind. Dr. Lawrence Paynter, of Salem, in his Medical History of Washington County, published in 1931, states that Niles Hardy was a graduate of some Medical School in Ohio and practiced in Salem in the late fifties. He was a jeweler and an excellent musician. Mehitable Hardy, born May 18, 1807, Mass., died Oct., 1850, in Louisville, Ky. She married Johanathan Wedgewood of Newmarket, New Hampshire. They came with the Hardy family to Washington County, Indiana, in 1838 and lived in this county several years. We do not have the descendants. Caroline Matilda Hardy, born July 18, 1810, Mass., died 1880, Georgetown, Mass. She married Flint Weston and lived and died in Georgetown, Mass. They were the grandparents of Marion D. and Ruth V. Weston of Georgetown, Mass., authors of this brief family history.